


❊My Sister’s Keeper ❊

by Mythstaken



Category: Buffy the Vampire Slayer (TV), Supernatural
Genre: Sister-Sister Relationship, Sisters
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-02
Updated: 2020-04-02
Packaged: 2021-02-28 17:02:34
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,094
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23440630
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mythstaken/pseuds/Mythstaken
Summary: Alternate timeline, pre Sunnydale, Hemery High era. Dawn catches Buffy coming in from one of her patrols.
Relationships: Buffy Summers & Dawn Summers
Comments: 2
Kudos: 8





	❊My Sister’s Keeper ❊

◇─◇──◇────◇────◇────◇────◇────◇─────◇──◇─◇

“Are you kidding me?!” Buffy scoffed to herself, inspecting the chipped nail polish on her hands — nail polish that she had just applied a mere four hours ago. “So much for strawberry margarita pink.” She sighed wistfully, before muttering bitterly, “Stupid vampires.”

It was just past 2 a.m and Buffy had just finished dusting a couple of hungry vampires — including a newborn. Those were a special favourite of hers because they were a few minutes old, had newfound brute strength and escalating cockiness 180 miles per minute, thinking that they were invincible. They were her favourite kind of bubble to burst. This had been on the lighter scale of this week’s patrols. Lighter meaning she was only sporting a few scratches on her knees (and possibly on her face, because she felt a little sting that she didn’t want to touch) and this time, her clothes were blood free. No weird explanations for mom. Buffy took that as a win. It’d only been two months since pedo-stach Merrick (She only called him that behind his back, otherwise he’d kill her) had interrupted her quality time with her favourite lollipop and informed her of her destiny, so she was still a little rough around the edges, but anytime she came home without her clothes being torn into was good enough for her. — Though, someone really needed to work on the chip resistant polish because a girl couldn’t be staking vampires with gross nails. Come on. 

Buffy's stake was tucked into the sleeve of her suede jacket, slouched boots clacking along the pavement. The air was balmy, and if it weren’t for the stake she had to be hiding, she would definitely have been showing off her cute white strappy top... even though the vampires never really appreciated her fabulous sense of fashion... or her painstakingly thought out puns. Such fun ruiners. The streetlights were the only source of light, other than the gentle filter of the moon that hung in the night sky, making the journey a little less scary. Sure, this gig sucked but the walk back home was always nice and calming... when she wasn’t bleeding, running for her life or trying to push a bone back into place. (She had broken her arm within the first week of slaying, and trying to explain that to her mom had been a fun one. Cheerleading tumble gone bad excuse pronto.) 

Once Buffy had made it onto her driveway, was where the fun started. She had to hop over the gate, because if she opened it, the wailing screeches of the aged hinges would give her away to her parents and result in instant grounding, and she couldn’t afford grounding when there were dates to go on on and boys to kiss. Once she had hopped over the gate, it was the situation of climbing the tree in front of her room, swinging from branch to branch before hoisting herself up to the top where she leapt onto the second story balcony she had right in front of her room, gripping the railing and lifting herself over. Most kids snuck out to go to parties so they could release all the teenage hormones they were swimming in. 

Buffy? She was trying to save the world and wasn’t allowed to use the front door. Tell her again how that was fair? 

Buffy always left the balcony door to her room unlocked, sliding open the door. Now this was the part where she had to be extra quiet, because if her parents heard any rustling in their fifteen year old daughter’s bedroom in the middle of the night, they would definitely come check and she needed as few witnesses as possible. She carefully took off her jacket, hand cupping the back of her neck as she blew out a long breath. Ow. Definitely needed some unwinding. Plucking out the vial of holy water, a wooden cross and two stakes from her jacket, she went to go put them in the bottom compartment of her chest (the top shelf was the decoy.) She yawned, gathering up her hair and putting it into a bun, looking towards her desk where this was a stack of homework that she hadn’t done. Yeah, that wasn’t happening now. Especially when she had to be up in four hours. Sleepily trudging towards her bed before she heard a voice coming from underneath the lump of sheets that Buffy had placed as a decoy, causing Buffy to yelp in surprise. 

“You know, mom’s totally gonna find out you went out in the middle of the night again.” 

There she was, Buffy's eleven year old sister, now sitting up on her bed with her arms folded and wearing a supercilious expression. Buffy sighed tiredly. As if being the slayer wasn’t a pain in the ass itself, her younger sister loved to one up it each and every time. 

“How long have you been there?!” The blonde asked her incredulously, slipping under the comforter. 

“Long enough to see you sneak back in and put away the weird murdery stuff,” Dawn said, with a shrug of shoulders. 

Buffy looked at her for a long moment before speaking, “Well, mom won’t find out. Because you won’t tell her. Otherwise I’ll tell her that you wore her lipstick to school the other day when she went to work.” 

Dawn glowered at her sister, and Buffy smiled because she knew she had won. This was how it usually went with the sisterly leverage thing. Dawn wriggled over as Buffy yanked some of the blanket, her dark hair cascading over the blanket, her voice a whisper, “Why do you always go out in the middle of the night? Is sucking on Billy Fordhom’s tongue that imprtant that—“

“Okay, first of all, I was not sucking on Billy’s tongue. Second of all, you shouldn’t be speaking about sucking anything. You’re like, ten.” 

“Eleven. I’m Eleven. I’m practically a teenager,” Dawn corrected Buffy with emphasis, wearing a proud look, watching as she crinkles up her nose in distaste and continues, “Though, when I’m a teen, I’m not gonna shove my tongue down anyone’s throat because that’s gross. Boys are gross.” 

Buffy couldn’t help but laugh at her innocence. “Sure thing, Dawnie. I’ll remind you said this in a couple years when you’re boy crazy.” 

“I’ll never be boy crazy. They have cooties.” 

Buffy's body shook underneath the blanket with laughter, rolling onto her side and distributing her weight evenly so she could face her. Buffy looked into her sister’s bambi like eyes, a warmth spreading in her chest as she looks at her. Dawn was so innocent. She didn’t know that the monster she always used to make dad check in her closet at night was real. She thought that cooties were the worst thing that could happen to someone. Buffy looked at Dawn and she saw something pure, something that was still untouched by heartbreak and the colder truths of the world. Buffy saw a faint reflection of the girl she used to be. Buffy did not know if it was because of the heaviness that had been pressing on her chest, or because she needed to share this with someone or if it was because she was just so utterly tired in every way she possibly could be, but the words found themselves coming out before she could realize the extent of what she was saying. “I was out hunting vampires, Dawn.” 

Why had said she just said what she did... she had no idea. This was not the kind of burden Buffy wanted to put on a child. This was something Buffy wanted to protect her from for as long as she could. Studying her sister’s reaction with concentration, but instead of an outburst of questions that she was expecting, Dawn laughed. “You’re so ridiculous.” 

“No, really. I’m the slayer. I was chosen to fight the forces of darkness and I have a watcher with a weird moustache. That’s why I’m always out every night. So I can save the world.” Buffy whispered her secret in the darkness, feeling some part of her break away. A breath that she had been holding in, releasing the weight with it. Maybe it was because Buffy knew that there would be an equilibrium in the fact that she would be able to alleviate this heaviness while knowing, that Dawn would never believe her. 

“So I guess the vampires gave you that cut on your cheek, huh?” Dawn asked her, her tone mocking. “Honestly, I think you’re in a gang. Why else would you have those weird wooden things in your jacket? Mom thinks you might be taking drugs, but I told her that you’re probably in some weird gang and —“ 

“What were you even doing in my room, anyways? I swear, if you borrowed something from my closet... ” Buffy's warning cutting off her a hundred miles a minute train of speech. That was a question that caused Dawn to stop talking, watching as her expression shifts and Buffy sees a flicker of something in those deep browns eyes which draw down as she curls into the mattress. 

There is silence, and in the silence Buffy knows the answer. It was the lack of sound Buffy knew well.

“Were Mom and Dad fighting again?” The Slayer asked, her voice soft as she shifted closer to her sister. 

“Yeah,” Buffy's little sister replied, keeping her gaze downwards. Buffy sighed, lifting a hand to comb through her dark hair. This girl could be a pain in the ass. She had a way of forcing herself into my life when she didn’t ask for it, steal her clothes and then have the audacity to act like she never saw Buffy's blue top, went through her makeup and sometimes, she even saw her snooping through Buffy's diary. Even still, she was her little sister and sometimes, even she could forget that she was a child and she was supposed to be the big sister. She didn’t have to tell me what they were fighting about, because she could tell from the way she wasn’t looking at Buffy, that Buffy had been the subject of tonight’s “who could yell louder fest. Buffy had been a popular topic lately, with the late nights, and getting caught sneaking in, the phone calls from her teacher for missed assignments and slacking grades. Buffy had an explanation for it all — only it wasn’t one she could exactly tell them.

“S’okay, Dawnie. You can sleep with me. Just don’t snore, or I’ll toss you onto the ground,” Buffy tried her best to make her voice playful, a ghost of a smile tugging at lips. 

“I don’t snore!” Dawn protested, ”Also, I’m not a kid anymore, stop calling me Dawnie.” 

A hearty laugh, pulling her closer to Buffy so that her head was resting against her shoulder, murmuring, “Sure thing, Dawnie.” 

Buffy felt a sharp elbow to her side before Dawn curled in against her, fingers keeping their steady comb through her messy hair. When mom and dad fought, it had become staple to end up in each other’s bedroom. Especially because Buffy had to be the one to distract Dawn from the commotion downstairs, so she would usually end up letting her ruin her make up just so she could give me a make over. Sure, most times Buffy ended up looking like she could join the circus, but she also knew it kept her mind off of the tension coming from downstairs. That, or Buffy would take Dawn out if it was still daylight — Dawn loved coming ice-skating with her.

If it wasn’t the things lurking in the dark Buffy had to protect her from, it was the things inside this house. 

“Hey, Dawn?” The blonde's tone of voice was dulcet, tipping her head down to speak against Dawn's hair.

“Yeah?” Buffy could tell she was sleepy, her voice quieter and more thickly laden with sleep than it had been moments ago. 

“I was out totally sucking on Billy’s tongue after the totally dangerous gang meeting.”

“You’re a freak, you know that?” Her little sister replied to her before yawning again. “G’night, freakazoid.”

Green eyes pooled with affection at her words, a low laugh expelling from Buffy's lips, tugging up the comforter to make sure she was covered with it, letting fingers cascade down her hair once more before settling in more comfortably, listening as Dawn's breathing slowed down to a steady pace, before   
Buffy whispered to her, “You have no idea.”


End file.
